Chemistry sets the wrong questions for girls

IN AUSTRALIA and New Zealand, most scientists are men. Some antipodeans conclude this is because men are naturally better at science than women. But in other societies, such as France and Hungary, women are much more prominent in the sciences.

It is possible that women are dissuaded from studying science by their performance in tests at school. Richard Walding, a Brisbane school-teacher, is doing research into this topic at Griffith University. Some intriguing results are emerging from his study of gender differences in solving chemistry problems.

He has found that some types of problems are much harder for girls than boys. The differences are clear. Walding gave one example where more than 55 per cent of boys solved a problem that only 30 per cent of girls completed successfully. And this sort of difference was consistent across the various states of Australia, and also evident in tests on students from ...

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